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Writers’ Workshop

Great opportunity to share and improve your writings!

CRPCA’s Writers’ Workshop is an eclectic bunch of people who have Peace Corps in common. Many have stories about time in the Peace Corps that just need to be told. What we do with these stories is really quite individualistic. Some just want to leave a legacy for their grandchildren and some use the Peace Corps experience as a jumping off point towards other work both fiction and non fiction.

There are several published writers who wrote before and after their Peace Corps experience and who use this group as a friendly place to read their work out loud and see if it sounds right and to get valuable feedback. Although the original idea for our Writers’ Group was to have a place where Returned Peace Corps Volunteers could write about their Peace Corps experiences, we’ve created a place where people can also just “prime the pump” of their creativity and write what pleases them.

For example, in 2012 we listened to dialogue-filled science fiction, a heart-wrenching piece about access to health care, a richly detailed account of a day at a nut market, retellings of the stories of 19th century women travelers, a diatribe about bad trekking party members, and more. Our participants write books on diverse subjects, plays for community groups, and journal articles. They’re also learning to write more engaging text for family members. Friendly feedback results in stories by RPCVs that people will want to read.

We welcome the participation of future PCVs and family members of RPCVs. We’ve discovered that there’s a hunger for sharing writing samples that resides in nearly all writers. All writers or would-be writers who would appreciate the perspectives of Peace Corps writers are invited to attend our gatherings.

Please check our Events calendar for the dates and locations of our Writers’ Workshop gatherings, which occur one weeknight a month for most of the year. Then go write something (or bring something you’ve written in the past) that you can read in ten or fewer minutes. Our Writers’ Workshop coordinator is Mimi Sanders (Turkey 1963-1965), writers AT crpca.org or 503-293-6195.